what's really going on

I'll start by saying that I am sorry that there are no pictures on our blog. We still can’t get picture to post. Guess you’ll just have to use your imagination………unless you want to come over and see these things for yourself.

Things here have been going well. Other than one of us being sick, we are making progress at the orphanage. Ray did a visual inspection of the existing school rooms and dorms and was very concerned about the structure of the buildings and the rainy season right around the corner. Therefore, he has been working with a contractor and a carpenter to get some of these things resolved before next month when the rain starts. Nothing huge, just finding doors to hang in the dorms that do not have them, replacing rotted window frames, diverting the waters that run into one of the boys dorms so it flows down the steps instead of into their room and repairing wall damage inside. He is having some of the older boys work with him so they are getting quite a bit of male bonding time and learning a skill. He wanted to work with the carpenter this time so he could see how things are done here and next time he will be able to supervise the boys in doing the work themselves.

I (Alice) have been spending quite a bit of time with Esther. I have been helping cook and we are starting to sort through the paperwork to create some type of file for each child.

We took two of the boys that are HIV positive to the clinic with Esther. The clinician was very kind and even gave the boys their medicines without their health passport book. He did not give them enough medicine for an entire month each but did give them enough medicine for 1 month total. Since then, we found both of the boy’s books and it is now in our possession. This book contains their health identification number and their medical history. Esther said the man at the clinic gave the boys medicine because we (whites) were there. Had we not been there, he would have not distributed their medicines without their health books. If that’s what it takes, one or both of us will continue to go to the medical clinics with her. We also took a young girl to the hospital to be tested for Malaria. She was tested positive for Malaria but Esther had the medicine at home to give her.

The kids come over to our house yesterday. Our house is in Chilobwe, about a 15 minute drive from the orphanage, which is in Baluti. But being kid, they know all the shortcuts. They like it at our house because each time they come over, we give them some type of food. They came over to pray for me yesterday and when they were ready to leave, we gave them candy corn. They went home and told Esther that they got “sugar”. She said, “I sent you over to pray and you come home and tell me about sugar. Tell me about praying first.” The other day I had to drop some bedsheets off at our house so they could be washed before we used them so I took several of the girls with me to deliver them back home. While we were there, we had a tea party, with bananas and strawberries, tea and toast. They had a great time and I enjoy spending time getting to know them. Each of them has a story and we are learning more and more about each of them every day.

We went to the store one day and they had a special on bread so we purchased enough bread that each child could have bread with margarine on it for breakfast the next day. They had bread with tea instead of porridge and loved it. It was such a small thing to us but such a huge thing to them. Most of them had never tasted margarine before.

We had a meeting with all the kids to discuss some of the things they have and some of the things they feel they need. We met with the girls and the boys separately because they have different needs. There were 4 girls who did not have a single pair of panties and 5 boys who did not have a pair of underwear. (We took care of that the next day and purchased them each 2 pairs.) Most of the kids have 1 – 2 pairs of underwear. The girls said they wanted panties and half slips, as not every girl has one. They also need bras – not every girl who needs one has one. They also asked for body lotion, wraps, flip flops (they refer to them as slippers), large bags or suitcases to put clothes in and menstrual pads. The boys asked for underwear, zippers and buttons for their trousers, flip flops, toothbrushes and toothpaste, large bags to put their clothes in, blankets (there are about 15 boys with no blankets), sleeping mats and belts. Not one of the children asked for recreational items although they could use soccer balls.

Some of these items you can purchase here but they are ridiculously priced. A bottle of body lotion that we can buy at the store for a couple of dollars is $7.00. Deodorant is the same price - $7.00. So if you have any of the items at home that the kids need and want to donate them to the orphanage, we would so greatly appreciate that. Remember, these items don’t have to be new. We are still looking for a secure place to store all these items and as soon as we get a place, we will send an email as to where the items can be delivered. Hopefully, we’ll have a place to store the items in a few weeks. (Note: we don’t need anything – the Lord has blessed us more than abundantly!)

We have met several other Americans who are here working. We meet them at the internet café, which seems to be a favorite spot of us Americans who need our technology fix. One of them is with an NGO working with HIV people and the other 3 worked with either orphanages or schools - seems to be a popular thing here. One of the guys has been living in Malawi for 38 years. When Bishop Stephano heard that, he told us that we will be living here 40 years! We feel the Lord called us here, so we’ll see how old we are when he calls us back to the U.S.